TheTitanomachy (Ancient Greek:Τιτανομαχία,romanized: Titanomakhía,lit. 'Titan-battle',Latin:Titanomachia) is a lost epic poem, which is a part ofGreek mythology. It deals with the struggle thatZeus and his siblings, theOlympian Gods, had in overthrowing their fatherCronus and his divine generation, theTitans.
The poem was traditionally ascribed toEumelus of Corinth (8th century BC), a semi-legendary bard of theBacchiad ruling family in archaicCorinth,[1] who was treasured as the traditional composer of theProsodion, the processional anthem ofMessenian independence that was performed onDelos.
Even in Antiquity many authors citedTitanomachia without an author's name.M. L. West[2] in analyzing the evidence concludes that the name of Eumelos was attached to the poem as the only name available. From the very patchy evidence, it seems that "Eumelos"' account of theTitanomachy differed from the surviving account ofHesiod'sTheogony at salient points. The 8th century BC date for the poem is not possible; West ascribes a late seventh-century date as the earliest.[2]
TheTitanomachy was divided into at least two books. The battle ofOlympians andTitans was preceded by some sort of theogony, or genealogy of the primal gods, in which, the Byzantine writerLydus remarked,[3] the author of Titanomachy placed the birth of Zeus, not inCrete, but inLydia, which should signify onMount Sipylus.